Keckiella Cordifolia (Benth.) Straw, HEART-LEAVED PENSTEMON, SCARLET-HONEYSUCKLE, HONEYSUCKLE PENSTEMON
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Keckiella cordifolia (Benth.) Straw, HEART-LEAVED PENSTEMON, SCARLET-HONEYSUCKLE, HONEYSUCKLE PENSTEMON. Shrub, evergreen, spreading and ascending with long, arching branches (scandent), 100–300 cm tall; shoots typically 2-dimensional (plagiotropic) by petiolar twisting, finely to densely puberulent (sun plants) or glabrate (shade plants). Stems: cylindric, turning purplish especially on exposed sides. Leaves: opposite and subopposite (sometimes whorled at certain nodes), simple, petiolate and on vigorous shoots with pair or whorl fused across node, without stipules; petiole channeled, 1–10 mm long, the base appressed, swollen, darkly pigmented, and persistent after blade abscises; blade ovate, 20–85 × 15–55 mm, rounded to truncate or cordate at base, serrate and short- ciliate on margins, acute to acuminate at tip, pinnately veined with principal veins sunken on upper surface and raised on lower surface, upper surface dark green and often semi- glossy, lower surface paler. Inflorescence: leafy panicle of opposite, 1−several-flowered cymes, terminal, bracteate, puberulent and glandular-hairy on green structures; bracts subtending cyme 2, leaflike, broadly ovate, to 20 × 15 mm, short-petiolate, sometimes with pair fused across node forming 2 ledges fringed with stiff hairs; main axis and peduncles of cymes green to purple, densely puberulent with or without scattered glandular hairs; bractlets subtending pedicel 3 in a whorl, ovate, 2–8 × 1–6 mm, with 1 axillary bud sometimes continuing the cyme; pedicel 3–4 mm long increasing 2× in fruit. Flower: bisexual, bilateral, 12−17 mm across, 30–40(–45) mm long; calyx deeply 5-lobed; tube < 1 mm long increasing slightly in fruit, inner surface glabrous; lobes overlapping at base, ascending, ovate to lanceolate, 6–11 × 2.5–3.5 mm, of various widths on each flower, green above midpoint aging dark reddish brown to red, overlapped margin membranous, inner surface with shorter hairs; corolla 2-lipped, 5-lobed with rounded tips, red to reddish orange with inner surfaces yellow-orange having reddish veins; tube ± cylindric, 16–21 mm long, 3.5–4 mm wide at orifice, yellow at base, externally capitate-glandular, internally stiff-pubescent at base and glabrous above; upper lip 2-lobed, 12–18 × 5.5–7 mm, ± with a pouch (galeate), lobes 1.2–1.5 mm long, externally sparsely glandular-hairy, internally with occasional glandular hairs; lower lip 3-lobed, 10–17 mm long, spreading downward, glandular-hairy on both surfaces, the lateral lobes oblanceolate, 7–10 × 4–5 mm, the central lobe 6.5–9.5 × 3–3.8 mm; stamens 4 + 1 staminode, fused to corolla tube 2.5–4 mm above base; fertile stamens exserted, paired, the upper pair 3–5 mm < lower pair; filaments straight, 23–30 mm long, yellow, enlarged and stiff-pubescent at base, sparsely glandular-hairy below and glabrous above midpoint; anthers versatile, dithecal, 2– 2.8 × 1.8–2 mm, yellow (reddish), the sacs divergent, longitudinally dehiscent and slit across inner surface at tip; pollen white; staminode fused at same level as stamens, straight, 14–15.5 mm long, brushlike on 1 side, yellow (reddish), with dense, stiff hairs at enlarged base, the hairs of brush straight and papillate to 1.4 mm long, sparsely glandular-hairy above base; nectary disc surrounding ovary base and slightly wider, ringlike, ± 0.5 mm thick, pale yellow to yellowish green; pistil 1; ovary superior, compressed-conic, ca. 2.5 × 1.5−2 mm, green, glabrous, 2-chambered, each chamber with ± 60 ovules attached to center; style exserted, 23–33 mm long (at level of long stamens), white; stigma minute, short-papillate. Fruit: capsule, septicidal and secondarily loculicidal at tip, dehiscence by 2 valves with valves also splitting, many-seeded, ovoid, 8.5–13 mm long, brown. Seed: ± prismatic, ca. 1.5 mm long, tannish, tapered with base narrower than top, the faces concave, the lateral faces rectangular to trapezoidal or triangular, other faces ± pentagonal or quadrangular, the edges with thin wings. Late May−mid-August. Native. A fairly common, scandent shrub of the range, colonizing in sun on disturbed slopes of shrublands but also common and persisting in shade of southern oak woodland, where comparatively large leaves are often present. Keckiella cordifolia has showy red to reddish orange flowers, which are available in range during early summer and visited regularly by hummingbirds. Its flowers project on pedicels from the leaves and bracts, and are positioned with the corolla tube horizontally or slightly raised, so thereby are appropriately oriented for these hovering pollinators, which extract thin nectar from the tube. B. A. Prigge & A. C. Gibson .